What If You Could Download That Tasty Looking Drink Your Friend Posted On Instagram?

Imagine a world where, instead of grumbling enviously every time your vacationing pal posts a pic of some gorgeous cocktail they’re sipping on the beach, you could enjoy it with them – sort of.

That could soon be the reality now that scientists in Singapore are working on a method of virtually sharing lemonade through the Internet using only a glass of water, LED lights and an electric pulse.

“People are always posting pictures of drinks on social media – what if you could upload the taste as well? That’s the ultimate goal,” Nimesha Ranasinghe, a member of the research team from the National University of Singapore, told New Scientist.

In their experiment – which was presented at the recent Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction in Japan – the researchers used a digital glass of water with an electrode running around its rim. When drinkers touched the glass with their tongues, it delivered an electric pulse that stimulated their taste buds and inspired a sour taste. The researchers made the liquid look like lemonade by using an RGB color sensor and LED lights in three colors – yellow, green and cloudy white.